The research reveals genuine and growing problems that need serious action, including:

A boy born in the most deprived 10 per cent of areas has a life expectancy of 68 – 8 years below the national average and 14 years below boys born in the least deprived areas

Since 2008, the number of under-25s who are unemployed has almost doubled, to 90,000

The number of people working part-time, who want a full-time job, has risen from 70,000 in 2008 to 120,000 in 2012

Rates of mortality for heart disease (100 per 100,000 people aged under 75) are twice as high in deprived areas as the Scottish average

Cancer mortality rates in the poorest areas (200 per 100,000) are 50% higher than average, and have not fallen in the last decade, while the average has fallen by one-sixth

On a brighter note, between 2001 and 2011, pensioner poverty saw a huge fall, from 230,000 to 120,000. This fall is also reflected elsewhere in the UK.

From now until the Independence Referendum in late 2014, the issue of independence will no doubt dominate the Scottish political landscape. At the moment, poverty is far from central to the independence debate, but it is important that it becomes so.

This discussion is, after all, about the kind of country Scotland wants to be, It must therefore cover areas that are central to tackling poverty – health, schools, childcare, benefits, taxes, work and pay, pensions, services, housing and more.

Although the Scottish Government already has powers over many of these areas, pensions and benefits are outside its remit.

The inevitably growing debate around independence must not obscure the need for on-going policy development in all of the devolved areas, to tackle problems that will exist whatever decision the Scottish people take in 2014.